The Mate They Rejected
Four and a half years later, I was still waiting on the second part.
I thought, not for the first time, of the drive I'd taken the night of Mara's birthday—the exchange in a room with no windows, the return before the household stirred. I didn't revisit it with guilt. I revisited it the way I revisited any transaction, checking that the accounting still balanced.
On paper, it balanced perfectly. Three unclaimed sons, available for exactly the match this pack required.
In practice, three men who looked through every woman I placed in front of them like she was furniture blocking a doorway.